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    Laplace

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    Dx Queen
    The document discusses converting Laplace's equation from Cartesian to spherical polar coordinates. It shows that Laplace's equation can be written as the sum of second partial derivatives with respect to r, θ, and φ in spherical polar coordinates. Several steps are required, including relating Cartesian and spherical polar coordinates, taking partial derivatives, and expressing the Laplace operator and unit vectors in terms of the new coordinate system.

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    Laplace

    Uploaded by

    Dx Queen
    30 views2 pages
    The document discusses converting Laplace's equation from Cartesian to spherical polar coordinates. It shows that Laplace's equation can be written as the sum of second partial derivatives with respect to r, θ, and φ in spherical polar coordinates. Several steps are required, including relating Cartesian and spherical polar coordinates, taking partial derivatives, and expressing the Laplace operator and unit vectors in terms of the new coordinate system.

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    The document discusses converting Laplace's equation from Cartesian to spherical polar coordinates. It shows that Laplace's equation can be written as the sum of second partial derivatives with respect to r, θ, and φ in spherical polar coordinates. Several steps are required, including relating Cartesian and spherical polar coordinates, taking partial derivatives, and expressing the Laplace operator and unit vectors in terms of the new coordinate system.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    30 views2 pages

    Laplace

    Uploaded by

    Dx Queen
    The document discusses converting Laplace's equation from Cartesian to spherical polar coordinates. It shows that Laplace's equation can be written as the sum of second partial derivatives with respect to r, θ, and φ in spherical polar coordinates. Several steps are required, including relating Cartesian and spherical polar coordinates, taking partial derivatives, and expressing the Laplace operator and unit vectors in terms of the new coordinate system.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    MP469: Laplace’s Equation in Spherical Polar Co-ordinates

    For many problems involving Laplace’s equation in 3-dimensions


    ∂ 2u ∂ 2u ∂ 2u
    + 2 + 2 = 0. (1)
    ∂x2 ∂y ∂z
    it is more convenient to use spherical polar co-ordinates (r, θ, φ) rather than Cartesian
    co-ordinates (x, y, z). These are related to each other in the usual way by
    x = r cos φ sin θ
    y = r sin φ sin θ
    z = r cos θ.
    To translate (1) into a differential equation involving (r, θ, φ) we need the following partial
    derivatives:
    ∂x ∂y ∂z
    = cos φ sin θ, = sin φ sin θ, = cos θ,
    ∂r ∂r ∂r
    ∂x ∂y ∂z
    = r cos φ cos θ, = r sin φ cos θ, = −r sin θ,
    ∂θ ∂θ ∂θ
    ∂x ∂y ∂z
    = −r sin φ sin θ, = r cos φ sin θ, = 0.
    ∂φ ∂φ ∂φ
    Using these the chain rule for differentiation implies that
    ∂ ∂x ∂ ∂y ∂ ∂z ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂
    = + + = cos φ sin θ + sin φ sin θ + cos θ ,
    ∂r ∂r ∂x ∂r ∂y ∂r ∂z ∂x ∂y ∂z
    ∂ ∂x ∂ ∂y ∂ ∂z ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂
    = + + = r cos φ cos θ + r sin φ cos θ − r sin θ ,
    ∂θ ∂θ ∂x ∂θ ∂y ∂θ ∂z ∂x ∂y ∂z
    ∂ ∂x ∂ ∂y ∂ ∂z ∂ ∂ ∂
    = + + = −r sin φ sin θ + r cos φ sin θ .
    ∂φ ∂φ ∂x ∂φ ∂y ∂φ ∂z ∂x ∂y
    These can be inverted, by taking linear combination with trigonometric function for exam-
    ple, to express partial derivatives of Cartesian co-ordinates in terms of polar co-ordinates:
    ∂ ∂ cos φ cos θ ∂ sin φ ∂
    = cos φ sin θ + −
    ∂x ∂r r ∂θ r sin θ ∂φ
    ∂ ∂ sin φ cos θ ∂ cos φ ∂
    = sin φ sin θ + + (2)
    ∂y ∂r r ∂θ r sin θ ∂φ
    ∂ ∂ sin θ ∂
    = cos θ − .
    ∂z ∂r r ∂θ
    One way of deriving the Laplacian in 3-dimensional spherical polars is is to expand
    the unit vectors r̂, θ̂ and φ̂ in the directions of increasing r, θ and φ respectively, in terms
    of the Cartesian unit vectors x̂, ŷ and ẑ:
    r̂ = sin θ cos φ x̂ + sin θ sin φ ŷ + cos θ ẑ,
    θ̂ = cos θ cos φ x̂ + cos θ sin φ ŷ − sin θ ẑ, (3)
    φ̂ = − sin φ x̂ + cos φ ŷ.

    1
    These can be inverted to give

    x̂ = sin θ cos φ r̂ + cos θ cos φ θ̂ − sin φ φ̂,


    ŷ = sin θ sin φ r̂ + cos θ sin φ θ̂ + cos φ φ̂, (4)
    ẑ = cos θ r̂ − sin θ θ̂.

    Then define the vector differential operator

    ∂ ∂ ∂
    ∇ := x̂ + ŷ + ẑ (5)
    ∂x ∂y ∂z

    and the Laplacian can be written as ∇2 = ∇.∇, using the vector dot product. Putting (2)
    and (4) in (5), and using standard trigonometric identities, gives

    ∂ 1 ∂ 1 ∂
    ∇ := r̂ + θ̂ + φ̂ . (6)
    ∂r r ∂θ r sin θ ∂φ

    Now to calculate ∇2 = ∇.∇ in spherical polars we must be careful since the polar
    unit vectors r̂, θ̂ and φ̂ are not constant. From (3)

    ∂ ∂ ∂
    r̂ = 0, θ̂ = 0, φ̂ = 0,
    ∂r ∂r ∂r
    ∂ ∂ ∂
    r̂ = θ̂, θ̂ = − r̂, φ̂ = 0,
    ∂θ ∂θ ∂θ
    ∂ ∂ ∂
    r̂ = − sin θ φ̂, θ̂ = cos θ φ̂, φ̂ = − sin θ r̂ − cos θ θ̂.
    ∂φ ∂φ ∂φ

    Using these in (6) the Laplace differential operator in equation (1) can be expressed
    directly in terms of spherical polar co-ordinates:

    ∂ 2u ∂ 2u ∂ 2u
    ∇2 u = + 2 + 2
    ∂x2 ∂y ∂z
    2
    ∂ 2u
     
    1 ∂ (ru) 1 ∂ ∂u 1
    = + sin θ + .
    r ∂r 2 r 2 sin θ ∂θ ∂θ r 2 sin2 θ ∂φ2

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